Immigrant entrepreneurs and their cross-cultural capabilities: A study of Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs in Australia

Kunlin Xu (), Judy Drennan () and Shane Mathews ()
Additional contact information
Kunlin Xu: Queensland University of Technology
Judy Drennan: Queensland University of Technology
Shane Mathews: Queensland University of Technology

Journal of International Entrepreneurship, 2019, vol. 17, issue 4, No 3, 520-557

Abstract: Abstract The aim of this study is to increase our understanding of immigrant entrepreneurs’ cross-cultural capabilities for international business. Based on 30 interviews with Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs in Australia, we found that cross-cultural capabilities include the capability of psychological adaptation (emotion management and positive mindset) and socio-cultural adaptation (cultural learning, language skills, and bicultural flexibility). A combination of capabilities is necessary for immigrant entrepreneurs to deal with acculturative stress and adapt to the new culture in international business context. Moreover, by leveraging bicultural flexibility, immigrant entrepreneurs create competitive advantage in international markets. We interpret this evidence by using progressive entrepreneurial activity focusing on theory development in the immigrant entrepreneurship context. This study contributes to immigrant entrepreneurship literature by identifying the need to employ a cross-capability lens with regard to the psychological adaptation and socio-cultural adaptation for cross-border business success.

Keywords: Immigrant entrepreneurs; Cross-cultural capabilities; Internationalisation; Qualitative research (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10843-019-00261-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:jinten:v:17:y:2019:i:4:d:10.1007_s10843-019-00261-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... ip/journal/10843/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10843-019-00261-4

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of International Entrepreneurship is currently edited by Hamid Etemad

More articles in Journal of International Entrepreneurship from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().